Check Please!
One of the major problems with proof-reading your own work is that you already know what you meant to say: you can't distance yourself from it far enough to see the mistakes.
Here are two suggestions which might help to overcome this problem:
1. I think most of us try and leave whatever piece of writing we are working on for as long as we can
before we check it to try and help us forget. But what do we do in the meantime?
The best thing is to work on something completely different. However good your memory is, it can't possibly retain everything,
so if you fill it up with something else, your later checking will be that much more efficient.
2. A big problem for me is that I tend to speed-read: I know what I've written and I skim it instead of checking it properly. One way to make myself go slow is to read out loud. That forces me to concentrate and I notice mistakes which would slip through otherwise, as well as identifying awkward phrases and word repetition.
If an editor doesn't know you, his first impression depends on the manuscript you send. If it's full of mistakes, even if the content is interesting, you aren't doing yourself justice. A well-presented and correct text means less work for the editor - and may bring you more work in the future!
